Will we ever play them again ?

B

Bitzer

Star Player
Looking at the championship table earlier and seeing Readings slide reminded me of a conversation that I had a couple of weeks ago. Was talking to a mate who supports them and he reckons they have lost tens of millions since their relegation from the premier league. According to him their last set of accounts show that their wage bill has been at around 197 per cent of their turn over. Squandered the parachute payments and are now leeching around £ 750,000 a week. It's now gone beyond chasing the premier league to can they survive? I'm not sure if I should feel a bit smug about their situation but strangely I can't.
 
Bitzer said:
Looking at the championship table earlier and seeing Readings slide reminded me of a conversation that I had a couple of weeks ago. Was talking to a mate who supports them and he reckons they have lost tens of millions since their relegation from the premier league. According to him their last set of accounts show that their wage bill has been at around 197 per cent of their turn over. Squandered the parachute payments and are now leeching around £ 750,000 a week. It's now gone beyond chasing the premier league to can they survive? I'm not sure if I should feel a bit smug about their situation but strangely I can't.
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It’s a toughie. I’ve always viewed them, Pompey and Aldershot as the local rivals, so I have absolutely no love for the biscuits.

Having said that, I hate hearing about clubs in trouble and wouldn’t wish that sort of thing on any team
 
Damned if I could ever gloat over Readings demise....it could happen to us yet!
Decline of Manu or Leeds is my bag!

In days of old we played Reading probably more than any other...loads of banter but not much dislike tbh! Elm Park was very simi!ar to the old DC!
Our playing records were almost identical. Easy train journey. Almost a derby really!
 
Bitzer said:
Looking at the championship table earlier and seeing Readings slide reminded me of a conversation that I had a couple of weeks ago. Was talking to a mate who supports them and he reckons they have lost tens of millions since their relegation from the premier league. According to him their last set of accounts show that their wage bill has been at around 197 per cent of their turn over. Squandered the parachute payments and are now leeching around £ 750,000 a week. It's now gone beyond chasing the premier league to can they survive? I'm not sure if I should feel a bit smug about their situation but strangely I can't.
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I would be careful about being smug because the whole thing turn around very quickly
 
Went to Reading Uni, and they use get free tickets for Elm Park, so went quite a few times. They had Lawrie Sanchez, who went to the uni, hence the tickets. Steve Death in goal, what a great name, and at the time Kerry Dixon....
 
I'll mock their relegation but would never wish a financial mess on another club after what we went through.

Incidentally, what exactly is it people think would happen if we went down and didn't come back up within the parachute payment period? Football is cyclical and it'll happen at some point. I suspect that will be us one day and maybe not so far into the future only, as pointed out, likely without ownership of a stadium.

We're so tied to Eddie Howe it's almost ridiculous. We just need one of the top six to want to take a chance on someone and then we'll relying on the board making a very good footballing decision.
 
Fans of all clubs dont differ much do they when it comes to the ' violent idiot ' stakes?
If enough idiots assemble in one place..violence is always likely!

Many idiots generally are lone ranger freelance types and harmless!
Our village idiot has recently died...300 people at the funeral....a very likable and funny guy but limited when it came to getting jobs etc. He had no known afflictions or disabilities of any sort....just not much going on up top.
He would go round town in fancy dress most days for attention...no one ever offended or harmed by him.

Coming back to football...and Elm Park....there were those of us who were just pranksters out for a laugh......banter with knobs on! When I was about 12 or 13 I spun a few digestive biscuits into the main stand at Elm park from down by the corner in the cheap end! ..like Frisbees towards the monkeys at feeding time! My dad went spare and whacked me round the ear! It was the game when Coughlin got sent off and we lost 1-0 . Dougie effin Webb scored I think, and finished our promotion push!


I mean...Reading fans ..crikey..if you were born in Reading its not your fault is it? and thats who you are likely to support!
I respect those that support their Home club...rather than you know what!
 
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Reading have been a bit of a zombie club for a little while now.

Like Sunderland and many others before them, relegation to L1 and a good old clear out would do them the world of good. Better than than limping along in the Championship surviving season after season with Championship players / egos on big wages.
 
I'm possibly going to be in the minority here, but I actually hope they sort themselves out and turn it around... I used to look forward to our matches with Reading every season, and to this date, consider our little rivalry with them more of a rivalry than Soton... I'd much rather play them every season than Soton.

I didnt particuarly like them and loved beating them... On the pitch, they can go f*ck themselves... But it's all just banter... and that's what we look forward to when following our team. However, I don't wish any financial woes on them as we've been there and as has been said, will come around again I'm sure...

I look forward to the day we play them again...
 
From Reading being perennial rivals to them being above us in the league for a while, I certainly did not like them. Elm Park usually spellt trouble and we were unfortunate at the Mad Stad.

Now, having had a couple of "big days out," I have no interest in the biscuit crunchers at all.

However, I always feel for genuine supporters when their club is going down the pan. Memories are short if people don't recall our own days in dire straits.
 
As soon as they started to get some of Madjeskis cash they became all Bertie Big Bollox. They always were an unpleasant bunch of cnuts - a close third on my list of historical cnuts.

I have no feelings really about them now, they are irrelevant.

I would say thank God no one invested serious money in Swindon or Exeter though.
 
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